FRISCO, Texas 鈥� After a 2-4 start, the Cowboys are continuing to look for ways to see the practice and preparation habits they believe in translate to wins on gamedays.
The team as a whole is searching for answers, and Dallas' defense is especially looking to find some rhythm after an up and down start to 2026 under new defensive coordinator Christian Parker.
"It's definitely surprising," Cowboys DT Kenny Clark said of the start to the year. "You never go into a season expecting yourself to be 2-4, but it is what it is. We put that on tape. All we can do now moving forward is worry about today and improving."
When asked specifically about how to translate their work during the week into more victories this season, Cowboys' defenders each responded differently. For Clark, one of Dallas' captains, it starts with getting more from himself and pushing that forward.
"I've been telling myself I want more for myself, I got to give more," Clark said. "It's just that. We all got to give more. It's not enough, because we're not winning games, we're not putting the right stuff on film consistently. So whatever it is that we got to do to get better and be more consistent play in and play out, that's what we got to do."
For LB DeMarvion Overshown, who is expected to be back on the field Monday night against the Eagles after missing the last five games with a hamstring injury, it's about the Cowboys not beating themselves.
"When 11 are guys doing their job, it's kind of hard to beat you," Overshown said. "In this league, offenses, they win games by explosive plays and the other team making mistakes. So once we can clean that up, play mistake free football, which has been the key in all of our talks this last week or so, is just how can we not beat ourselves? How can the Cowboys defense just play a clean football game?"
In veteran OLB Rashan Gary's eyes, creating positive habits that always stick with you is an important piece of the puzzle.
"Starts in the meeting room, starts in practice, creating those habits," Gary said. "Just being consistent with the habits that we create. Practice to game day, we have to consistently have good habits throughout the week, consistently have good habits throughout practice so it can show up on game day."
On Monday, Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer said he preferred an 鈥渁ngry鈥� team over a measured one. He added that he think his players are "pissed off" and "ready for a win." Overshown may not be one of the players that is "angry" per se, but is focused on being able to help steady the ship for the defense and team as a whole.
"I wouldn't say it makes me angry. I wouldn't say we're frustrated," Overshown said. "But I would say as competitors, we want to play better. We want to win. So we're going to do whatever way it takes to do that. It really don't matter how we feel, whether we come in here smiling or whether we come in here punching the walls. The result's not going to turn until we take up on ourselves to do what we got to do to change them."
Gary is looking forward to the challenge of being able to finally find some all-around consistency and stack wins.
"Nah, I'm excited man. You can't be angry," Gary said. "This game of football teaches you a whole lot of life lessons. Another great thing about this game is you can lose one week and you can come back the next week and be on top of the world. So we're just trying to chase that feeling, chase consistency once again. But no reason to be mad."
In a 23-13 loss to the Packers, there were some positives on defense. Dallas held Green Bay to 57 yards rushing on 26 carries and had three sacks on Packers QB Jordan Love.
"Just everything that we talked about throughout the whole week, just playing with our play style, being able to set edges and knock things back in the run game," Clark said. "I think it all started right there with the run game, stopping that. Getting them in longer passing situations. And then it's all about getting them off the field on third down. Wasn't good enough on third down, got to be better situationally there. But it all starts with the run game."
On third down, the Cowboys defense allowed Green Bay to convert nine of ten times in the first half. How does that get remedied?
"A combination of a lot of things," Clark said. "I feel like it's all stuff that we can fix. It's all stuff that, nothing like the opponent did, it's stuff that we inflicted on ourselves. We get those things fixed, and we rush and [the] coverage match the rush, think good things are going to happen, but we've got to just do it more consistent."
Along with their three sacks, Dallas recorded the highest-pressure rate of the season on Love with 20 pressures, good for a 45.5% pressure rate. Of course, the Cowboys want to make sure they convert that to more sacks. But after a slow start for their pass rush, what changed things in this game?
"I think we played a lot of running quarterbacks early on in the year. I'm speaking for myself, I feel like we played a lot of running quarterbacks, and guys are worried about the scrambles and containing and doing all that kind of stuff," Clark said. "But we just got guys that can just go, and we can play off each other and just trust that if a guy make a move, we can cover him up and just play fast."
"At the end of the day, we got a lot of elite players that can play fast. And as long as we're doing that and doing that on the practice field and making that transition to the game, I think the work will speak for itself."
For Gary, now that there's been a good showing in the pass rush, he says it's time to keep the ball rolling.
"Once you get it rolling, the ball starts rolling and it starts rolling fast," Gary said. "Just believing and being consistent to the plan, just understanding week in and week out you might not get the numbers, but if you have a certain move that the coach talked about or emphasized and you're winning on it consistently throughout that game, you've just got to be consistent. We're going to have time throughout this season to finish that, we're going to be able to get home on those opportunities."
While there have been improvements in spurts, Dallas' defense knows there is still plenty of work to be done to reach the potential they feel like is within reach.
"Until we're shutting out opponents, it's always going to be room for improvement," Overshown said. "That's just what this league is鈥� It's now or never. We're taking accountability among ourselves, among our unit, just to take the next step. We know how good we can be. We done seen it on film in countless games. When we're playing our best football, we're getting off the field, we're causing havoc in the backfield. So it's just about taking the next step and doing right, and not being ourselves."
